River Indus Valley Civilization and Religion

The River Valley Civilization began around 4000 BCE and around 3000 BCE. Lots of civilizations were built and there were four distinct ones. They all had their own differences but there will discuss the similarities of all four civilizations. I will talk about the advance civilization, geography, patriarchy and Religion of these civilizations.

All four civilizations were advance civilizations. They all had or played a part of irrigation ditches and traded. Irrigation ditches are manmade channels that delivers water to homes. The water came from which ever river was closest to there villages.

For trade, all four civilizations used the river for travel to trading purposes. Yellow River didn’t trade much due to mountain range and river valleys. They each traded different things but for the same reason. They traded different things for things they needed or wanted. Mesopotamia traded things such as food, clothes, jewelry and wine. Egypt traded gold, Papyrus, linen, grain and more. Indus River traded pots, beads and cotton clothes.

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Yellow River traded farming tools and weapons.

Another thing these four civilizations had in common was their geography. All four of these civilizations experienced flooding. Mesopotamia had unpredictable flooding which means it flooded a lot of random periods. They also had advance weapons that they created. Egypt had yearly flooding, due to this they were able to tell when a year has passed and created a calendar based on astronomy. Indus River also had unpredictable rivers. Indus River floods were very devastating because of the Himalayan Mountains. Yellow River flooding was very common.

Over 150,000 registered floods in ancient historical records. Indus River also had very sophisticated plumbing and sewage systems. This was possible for them because of the irrigation ditches. The four civilizations flooding patterns were very different but similar.

Patriarchy around this time was really bad. We still see some to this day but The River Valley Civilizations patriarchy was bad. All four civilizations had it but some more severe than the other. In Mesopotamia women could conduct businesses as long as their husband permitted it. If a wife left her husband, she faced penalties. Conceiving children was main purpose and boys were preferred. In Egypt, woman were not treated equal to men but had more rights than in other civilizations.

In the Indus River civilization women received little to no power at all. Many occupations of government were stations given to men , but women were given no jobs. Women were derived of education and men had full reign on their family members and affairs. In the Yellow River Civilization, authority of family belonged to the father. The father arranges the marriages of his daughters, control the amount of eduction received by the children and chose the careers of his sons. The mother occupied a subordinate position and is unable to own property. All four civilizations didn’t treat women equal to men. Men controlled everything while women had to stay home and tend to the children.

Each of these four civilizations believed in multiple gods. There were religions such a Buddhism and Hinduism. Mesopotamia had a polytheistic belief system which means that people believed in multiple gods. They also believed in demons created by gods which could be good or evil. There were also gods and goddesses, the ruler of the sky, air and more. Egypt also had a polytheistic religion. They had a god represented in the shape of an animal such as a cat goddess, cobra goddess, ibis god or jackal god. These gods and goddesses were given human bodies and credited with human attributes and activities. Indus River polytheistic religion consists of three religions. It was made up of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

They had multiple gods but they also worshipped fertility symbols. Indus people worshipped a Mother Goddess symbolising fertility.They worshipped fertility symbols which were round or pierced stones, a practice that was performed before the worship of Shiva and Parvati in the form of Sivalinga. They may have believed in magical rituals, charms and amulets and also demons and spirits. They also may have believed in life after death after the discovery of pottery items and ornaments on the burial grounds. Lastly, The Yellow River Civilization believed in Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Just like the other civilization their religion was polytheistic.

In conclusion, these are the similarities of these four civilizations. There are more similarities than we may notice and this shows they didn’t live to differ from each other.